


The ring

by alinewrites



Category: Blake's 7
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-24
Updated: 2016-04-24
Packaged: 2018-06-04 07:01:33
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6646948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alinewrites/pseuds/alinewrites





	The ring

Gandar was little more than a huge shopping center, a city only preoccupied with business, a repressed oligarchy with very little interest in arts, utopia and freedom – all things often not convertible in money. Shopping though appealed to the Liberator's crew, Blake included. Vila of course was particularly thrilled and his enthusiasm was infectious. It had been a long time since they'd had any holidays and Gan's death was still heavy on everyone's mind. 

Avon though declined to go and Blake suspected he enjoyed those days when he could roam the Liberator alone, maybe search it for some hidden treasures. 

“He’ll leave us down on Gandar, warn the Federation and steal the Liberator,” Vila complained. "Empty the treasure room."

Blake didn’t think so little of Avon. "He wouldn't do that."

“He would,” Vila insisted, “I know I would if I could bear loneliness and fear and danger. Avon’s worse than me.”

They left and Avon manned the teleport with obvious release, confirming Blake’s guess. Loneliness wasn’t something Avon was scared of.

Jenna went to look for some spare parts the Liberator might need, and maybe other motives. There was a more mysterious part to Jenna than one would’ve thought at first sight. Vila happily lost himself in the crowd with Cally and Blake found himself alone. He made it his duty to buy a gift for everyone. It wasn’t very often that he had the opportunity to reward his crew. He felt indebted to them for following him and, like Avon would say among other niceties, “risk their lives on a regular basis”.

Blake had to hand that to Gandar: you could find anything there. Two bottles of fine alcohol for Vila, although probably any alcohol would have done. Vila wasn’t the picky kind. Earrings for Jenna and jewels for her hair. And for Cally an intricate pendant she would like, if only because she wasn’t used to gifts. I’m not being very original, Blake thought, but that would have to do.

He was walking back when he saw the ring in a small shop window. The strange, almost hostile beauty of it struck him. This was something Avon would like – the thought sprang to his mind. It was obscenely expensive but something about it was mesmerizing. The ring shone darkly, a soft black gold band, a round centered black diamond flanked with two red. Smooth and dark, beautiful and threatening, elegant and unique, as the shop owner told Blake. Avon was all that, Blake thought and it was only when he walked out of the shop with the small velvet case in his pocket that he realized how inappropriate his feelings about Avon were. His euphoria at having found the perfect gift abated suddenly and he was just a second from walking back inside and ask for a refund. But certainly the seller wouldn’t want to take it back so he was burdened with his spur of the moment gift.

Avon won’t like it. He won’t want it. He doesn’t wear jewels. He won’t want a gift from me, of all people. 

Back on the Liberator they traded an account of their respective getaway – people they’d met, things they’d seen. Avon listened to them for a moment and yawned. “I’ll retire to my room now, get some sleep. You can pride yourselves on boring me to sleep. It’s something, I guess.”

When he was gone Blake gave out his gifts, earning a nice bunch of thanks and a chaste kiss from Jenna. Vila went to his cabin whistling softly and nursing his bottles like cherished new-born twins. Jenna put on the earrings and Cally lost herself in the contemplation of her pendant. Blake was rather proud of himself so far but his main problem remained whole and it took him a long time before he steeled himself and knocked at the door of Avon’s room. Maybe he was asleep. All of this looked more and more like a bad idea and he was about to turn around and leave when the door opened.

“What do you want, Blake? Another anecdote about the fascinating world of Gandar?”

Blake shook his head. “Not exactly. May I come in?”

Avon let out a long-suffering sigh and let Blake in, closing the door behind him and leaning against the panel. “What is this all about?”

“I bought something for everyone. You included,” Blake said, keeping his voice even. He fumbled a bit though to retrieve the box from the depths of his pocket under Avon’s cold scrutiny. “This is it.”

Avon opened the case, stared at the ring, then at Blake, then back at the ring, and eventually sat down on the bed. “Tell me, Blake,” he said not taking his eyes off the jewel, “what did you buy the others?”

“Oh well,” Blake said with forced cheerfulness. “The usual. Booze for Vila, jewels for the ladies.”

Avon raised the ring under the light; it caught in the rubies and the diamond and seemed to explode in myriads of coloured sparks. A wonder, Blake thought. So much light hidden in so much darkness.

“And this…” Avon said thoughtfully, “this you chose for me.”

“Yes.”

Avon put the ring back into the case with unusual care and seemed to think about it. 

Blake waited for the explosion but it didn’t come.

“Are you courting me, Blake?” Avon asked evenly.

“What? No! Of course not. It just seemed…. I thought it would suit you.”

“Why? Why would it suit me?”

There was no anger in Avon’s voice. He seemed genuinely interested in the answer.

Blake struggled with his own feelings, looking for an answer. “I can’t really explain that, Avon. I saw it and I thought it would look fine on you.”

“Really? This ring must have been very expensive. Much more expensive than the gifts you so generously bribed the others with, I’m certain. Am I so difficult to bribe that you have to present me with such a treasure?”

Was that it? Blake didn’t like the idea. “As I told you…”

Avon rose, the box still in his hand. He’s going to throw me out, Blake thought, and braced himself.

“It is a very beautiful ring. You overdid yourself this time and I am more than a little surprised that you did so for me. So I’m asking the question again: Why?” He came closer. “My father used to cheat on my mother with beautiful and younger women. This is the kind of gift he would’ve given them for a night or two in his bed. Is this what you want, Blake?”

“No! I’m not that kind of man. I just wanted to make you a gift and…”

“Or do you love me?”

The question stopped Blake dead in his track. “What?”

“Do-you-love-me? Is it too difficult a question for your reptilian brain? Do you love me Blake?” Avon’s gaze was hypnotic and dark and his voice a whisper, velvet wrapping around Blake’s groin. “And about what you said; you are exactly that kind of man. I wouldn’t trust you about love; your beloved suicidal cause will always come in the way of your feelings, assuming you have any. But sex… It is what you crave. Hence the ring.”

On that Avon started to disrobe as if it was something natural and Blake’s heart skipped a beat or two. Under the leather Avon wore a soft black sweater. 

“What I don’t understand is why me? Jenna would be happy to give you what you need.”

“Avon, stop this.”

“Of course, Jenna is a woman. Old-fashioned as you are you probably think she deserves better than inconsequential sex, when I, on the contrary…”

The black top fell to the floor and Avon was half-naked, pale and smooth like nothing Blake had ever seen. I should go, he thought. 

“How does it feel to desire someone you despise, Blake?”

“I don’t despise you.” Blake said. “I don’t.”

“But you desire me.”

“I never thought…”

“That’s a given. You don’t think. If you did, we would all be on a nice planet with our share of the treasure room.”

“Is this really what you want? Don’t you think defeating the Federation is more of a…”

Avon’s mouth was on his before he could finish the sentence and he found himself kissing back hungrily. Avon pulled away slightly. “One word; one single world about the Federation, the cause or anything related and I’m out of the game. Do you understand?”

Blake nodded and dragged Avon into another breathtaking kiss.

Avon in bed was demanding and hard at first but as the night went on he became pliant and oddly submissive, wanting Blake rough, wanting to be bruised and marked and used. Blake complied with a feeling of elation. Avon clutching to him like he was drowning, Avon hissing and moaning in pleasure was something he wouldn’t have dared dream of. In the morning though when Avon disentangled himself from Blake’s possessive embrace and rose from the bed, his lips swollen and his eyes weary, shame washed over Blake. He followed Avon in the bathroom, watched him as he showered, oblivious of Blake’s presence.

“Are you all right?” Blake asked. He would have apologized for the angry marks that looked so raw on Avon’s pale flesh but Avon didn’t look offended and Blake was already thinking of doing it again. The thought made him blush – I am such a hypocrite, he thought.

“I’ll be. Just leave me an hour or two and I’ll be fine.” Avon said, lying back on the bed, naked, his eyes closed, looking dazed and surprisingly peaceful. “Now go. I’m sure there’s some unwinnable battle to be fought somewhere that requires your irresponsible enthusiasm.”

Blake looked for something to say and found nothing. 

“I will keep the ring,” Avon said. “You were right. I like it.”

“I’m glad you do.”

“By the way,” Avon still said, “What happened here last night won’t change anything between us on the flight deck.”

“I didn’t expect it to.” Blake said. 

“And no matter how often it may happen in the future; nothing will ever change.”

Blake nodded solemnly. Still, once he was out of Avon’s room he couldn’t help humming cheerfully and Vila gave him a strange look when he entered the flight deck. 

Later Avon joined them. He wore a black turtleneck and looked no different from who he’d been the day before. He sat a little stiffly – that earned him another of Vila’s shrewd look - and stared at the screen with his usual display of disdain. His eyes met Blake’s and nothing transpired of what Avon could feel. Blake wondered how long he would have to wait before being admitted to Avon’s bed again. Was he supposed to ask? Avon would hate to be taken for granted, probably. Blake noticed Jenna’s look on him and cleared his throat. Schooling himself, he managed to take his attention off Avon and after a moment priorities reasserted themselves. Avon was right, after all: there was not enough place for love in his life. It didn’t occur to him at the moment that it could be any different for Avon.


End file.
